02 December 2018 Business

Onlineprinters lays groundwork for next expansion

The German online print company is shifting its headquarters to create the scope for continuing growth across its operations.

Fast expanding Onlineprinters has shifted its head office closer to Fürth Uferstadt, near the centre of Nuremberg. The new offices will house central administrative functions and will employ 150 in IT, support and marketing at the premises opened by the mayor of Fürth. The company has had a smaller presence in the town for some time.

Production in Germany will remain centred in Neustadt an der Aisch where space for expansion was becoming limited, and there is a limited pool to recruit from, particularly when employing IT and other office based functions, including multilingual support teams which are increasingly necessary as the company expands.

It has acquired Solopress in the UK, LaserTryk in Denmark and is pushing further into Scandinavia and Poland. It has grown to employ 1,400 across four countries with no sign of slowing. Earlier this year it was reported that the company had been preparing for an IPO which might value the business at €500 million. That has not happened, though with Bregal and Project A as private equity investments, the IPO is a matter of timing.

One factor may be the uncertainty around Brexit and how this might affect growth in demand. It is not, however, changing expansion plans for Solopress, where a ten-colour perfecting XL75 has been installed recently. Further expansion is already on the cards for next year.

“No matter what happens, we have a beachhead in Greater London," says a spokesman for Onlineprinters. “We need multilingual staff especially for marketing and customer cases."

The €200 million turnover online print business first opened an office in the town in 2014, but now has invested “a six-figure sum” in what now becomes the company’s administrative headquarters.

”We have a long standing goal of uniting our e-commerce areas in a larger building in order to be able to improve cooperation and continue to grow," says managing director Michael Fries.

Onlineprinters

Onlineprinters is moving its head office closer to the centre of Nuremberg where it will be easier to recruit skilled IT and multilingual support staff. Production remains a few miles away in Neustadt an der Aisch.